Australian actor and director Joel Edgerton has spoken out in favour of tighter controls on internet service providers that profit indirectly from film piracy.

The Gift review – a sly thriller of social transgressions

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Speaking while on promotional duties for his new film, The Gift, Edgerton said penalties should apply to those higher up the film industry food chain.

“The real onus is on companies who are the stream in which some of those downloads are floating down. I think they have the ability to police and control that stuff and I think they should,” he said.

“Anybody who is condoning it at a higher level because they are profiting from it, they are the ones who should be rapped on the knuckles, rather than just me because I’m holding a DVD that I bought for $1 in Bali.”

Australians are among the world’s worst offenders when it comes to downloading illegally pirated films, including the well-received Aussie zombie horror Wyrmwood, which had the dubious honour of becoming one of the world’s most torrented films.

The federal government recently pushed through an amendment to the copyright bill aimed at curtailing illegal downloads. Edgerton said he believed it was important to educate people about the effect piracy has on movie-making.

“I feel devastated for people when they are about to release a movie and then you find out it’s been pirated and already downloaded,” he said. “All that work that has gone into it – it’s such a shame.”

Joel Edgerton in The Gift: ‘I don’t feel like when I’m on set, I really use a large part of my brain.’ Photograph: Supplied by Roadshow films

Edgerton is part of Blue Tongue Films, a collective of Australian film-makers including David Michôd, Kieran Darcy Smith and his brother Nash Edgerton who have made some of the country’s most successful films of recent years, including Animal Kingdom.

One solution Edgerton has discussed with Michôd would see airport customs forms include an option for people to declare pirated goods. “At the very least it’s going to make people look at their actions and think: what I’m doing is actually not right,” he said.

The Gift, which has received rave reviews since it opened internationally, is Edgerton’s directorial debut. He also wrote and stars in the thriller about happily married couple Simon and Robyn (Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall) who move to a new city only to be befriended unexpectedly by old schoolfriend Gordo (Edgerton).

Gordo seems to take an unhealthy interest in the couple, besieging them with unwelcome gifts until events taken an unexpected turn. What results is an unnerving but nuanced movie investigating the motivations behind bullying and cruelty between individuals.

“It’s about control, persuasion and dominance,” said Edgerton. “The way we enact that as children, and also how that manifests in subtle ways in relationships, the question of whether we really know the people we think we know.”

It is also about our capacity to change, he said. “What are those roles we played in school and have we changed? What does it require of us, in order that we can move forward as a different person?”

‘Out of the box’: Jason Bateman as Simon in The Gift. Photograph: Supplied by Roadshow films

Hall was top of Edgerton’s wishlist to play Robyn, for her ability to convey both fragility and strength on screen. Bateman, however, who played Michael Bluth in comedy series Arrested Development, was an “out of the box idea”.

The two actors crossed paths on the 2006 movie Smokin’ Aces. “If anybody needs to know anything about the versatility of Jason Bateman from comedy to drama, from darkness to light, all you have to do is watch the three-minute scene from Smokin’ Aces,” said Edgerton. “It’s one of the most inspired performances I’ve ever seen.”

Edgerton has enjoyed recent onscreen success with roles in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Zero Dark Thirty. He will soon appear in Black Mass opposite Johnny Depp as well as Jane Got a Gun with Natalie Portman and Ewen McGregor.

The actor said he felt the need to challenge himself with writing and directing. “I don’t feel like when I’m on set, I really use a large part of my brain,” said Edgerton. “That’s not to say I’m lazy about the work I do, but you sit around and wait and every now and then they roll you out of your box and you do your acting, and they roll you back in your box.”

Writing and directing offered him more options, he said. “Writing makes me feel more in control of things, and directing was something that I suspected could be a good fit for me, considering I love storytelling. And if I could do it well, then it would be a good future for me. I think it will lead to a longer healthier life for me and I won’t feel so stagnant a lot of the time.”

* The Gift is out in Australia on 27 August. It is out now in the UK and US.